


Arabesque

by Nieri_is_a_cat



Series: Fire on Fire [4]
Category: Ballerina | Leap! (2016)
Genre: F/M, It's been in my pc for ages, bear with me, i felt like posting this tho its second chapter isn't finished
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23118172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nieri_is_a_cat/pseuds/Nieri_is_a_cat
Summary: It had started innocently enough, she was fourteen and was watching this older danseur making fouettés. For a challenge.It all starts innocently enough, they become friends and it's just by chance it all evolves to more.
Relationships: Louis Merante & Lucien Petipa, Louis Mérante/Odette, Marie Taglioni & Odette
Series: Fire on Fire [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1285058
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Arabesque

**Author's Note:**

> And so, finally, I post the new one. I have to say this was kinda forgotten inside one of the many folders of my pc, but today I felt like posting it though I still have not finished the rest of Arabesque. yeah, there's more than one chapter. More than two, actually. I still have to finish writing the second, tho...
> 
> The characters and the movie don't belong to me. Ewww, I wish they did.

It had started innocently enough, she was fourteen and was watching this older danseur making fouettés. For a challenge. That was stupid, really, but also weirdly fascinating. She’d come to count at least 175, and it seemed he had no intention of stopping. When he did, though, it was at 187, and she saw him run away, a hand on his mouth and one on his stomach. She had snickered, he was gonna throw up. Idiot. But thinking that it was stupid and that he’d been an idiot did not stop her from trying as well a few days later.

Classes had just finished, and Marie was nowhere in sight, so she had started her own personal challenge. She could do better than him. She surely could do better than him!

Around fifty she had to stop, because her head was spinning wildly and she had nausea and the sudden need of regurgitating her breakfast. In the silence that followed, a slow clapping of hands had her startled. She slowly turned, and, on the door, there was the dancer of the 187 fouettés. Heaven no. Not him. Why always her? Why?

“That was impressive,” he said, “fifty-seven is pretty good!”

She backed a step when he made one to enter. He stopped.

“Thanks.” She told him warily. “In a week I could do better than you, if I wanted...”

That had him laughing heartily, and his laugh made her blood boil. He was making fun of her, how hateful!

“I’m sure!” he said trying to stop the fit of giggles. “I’m Louis, by the way.”

“Odette.”

“My pleasure.”

“What are you doing here?” Odette didn’t want him to stay. She wanted him to go so she could finally have some peace.

“I was just passing by and saw you doing fouettés. I take it you’ve seen me the other day and wanted to try?”

“What? No!” Yes. Yes, that was exactly what had happened, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. Nope. Not at all. Never ever. It was stupid, and she had been a stupid. She shouldn’t have done it.

“Liar.” Louis seemed to be at ease, relaxed, and he had entered the room like he owned it. “But don’t worry, I won’t say anything.”

He was absolutely, undeniably, _infuriating_.

Odette did not move when he neared her, she just angrily glared at him, a frown plastered on her face. He didn’t seem scared by her anger, au contraire! He was clearly amused. She had to find a way to get him out of her practice room.

With her best “I’m so sorry” look, she put a hand on his arm and pointed the door, “I’m sorry,” she told him, “but I _really_ have to practice. Can you please go?”

“Practice with me, I have to study too. We could do a pas de deux, what do you think?” His eyes had taken up an interested light.

Had he really...? He had! He had, the smooth idiot! She wasn’t going to accept. Definitely she wasn’t going to accept. But... she did have a pas de deux to practice for a ballet... Maybe she could… Just for this one time?

“Fine.”

She saw him smile, and, immediately after, he offered her a hand. She took it and they started dancing to a soundless tune.

Louis was good, really good, she had to admit. But she was better, and she was going to show him.

To be completely honest, the very next day she had been asking her coursemates about him, and she had had a certain degree of success in her quest for information.

She had found out he was older than her by merely three years and that his teacher was Lucien Petipa, the brother of the really famous Marius Petipa, who worked as a choreographer at the Imperial Ballet in Saint Petersburg. She had also found out that the other day he had broken a record and that he had a really bad character, according to some of his coursemates.

That had surprised her, because to her he had been nice. Definitely a surprise.

Obviously they had met again in the following days. It was like they were drawn to each other by some invisible force. And so they had become friends. In between their classes they had started to spend time together, and talk and really, it was surprisingly much what they agreed on.

For the upcoming ballet, though, they wouldn’t be together. Marie wanted her to partner with a dancer from the advanced male course, someone called Mérante. Odette had tried telling her about Louis, about how a good dancer he was, but Marie had ignored her and had dismissed her words with a “Don’t worry, p’tit, you’ll like him.” It had not been enough for her, but she trusted her teacher, and so she had let the subject fall.

The day when combined rehearsals finally started, she and Marie were the first to arrive, and Marie had her starting to rehearse her little solo immediately. In a few minutes, though, all the other dancers arrived, and, among them, she saw Louis. Needless to say, Odette was pleasantly surprised by the fact.

Marie had placed a hand on her shoulder and had guided her toward him and the man accompanying him.

“My dear,” she had told Odette, “I have the pleasure to introduce you to monsieur Lucién Petipa and his student Louis Mérante.”

Odette hadn’t immediately connected the dots, and had just kept staring at him dumbfounded while Marie introduced her to them. “And this is my pupil, mademoiselle Odette Livry.”

Louis had the same astonished expression in his eyes, but, after a while, he burst out laughing, much to the dismay of both his teacher and hers. And, to the general surprise, she joined him.

“Odette? What’s so funny about this? Care to explain, young lady?” Marie’s tone was stern, and Odette stopped laughing the same instant the sentence was finished.

“Nothing.” She muttered, because she dreaded what Marie would say about her friendship with Louis.

“Odette.”

“We’re friends, Madame.” had interjected Louis, “But this encounter was a surprise because we haven’t bothered asking for surnames.”

“I see...” Marie’s piercing eyes were fixed into Louis’, and Odette could see clearly that her friend was starting to quiver under her hard gaze.

After that, Marie didn’t let her eyes off of Louis not even for a moment, Odette couldn’t not notice it, but Louis didn’t seem to care, and so she mirrored him. Apart from her teacher’s terrifying gaze on them and the curious glances their fellow dancers shot at them, the rehearsal went on pretty well.


End file.
